March is finally upon us. This means a few things: Spring is coming (for the northern hemisphere if this polar vortex ever releases us from its vice), a new slew of deadlines will blow right by (have you seen how many journals have deadlines for March 15th?), and my blog is about to explode with doodles and poetry.

For my doodleku veterans, I know this is old hat, but it never hurts to have a little review.

Doodleku? Whazzat?

In short: The combination of a doodle and a short poem.

In length: Some may consider it a sub-genre of haiga; however, there’s a tad more wiggle room for overlap in image and poem content than traditionally acceptable in haiga. The form is meant to be exceptionally playful, and may include haiku, tanka, senryu, kyoka, gogyoka, small stones, or really any short poem (10 lines or less). I’ll even open it…

The Winter 2014 Showcase is open for submissions. See the Submission page for details of how to get in touch. You only have until the end of the month!

This time, as far as possible, I would like to populate this Showcase with writers who have not featured in the zen space before. So I am asking you who have for a special, if unseen, contribution. Do you know someone whose writing of haiku, ‘small stones’, or micro-poetry you think is excellent, and whom I have yet to discover? If you do, then point them in our direction, forward the details of this post to them, encourage them to make a submission. In fact, please feel free to go on doing this service for me. I shall be very grateful, as I hope to feature the best writing around.